A mesoscopic, extended Doi theory for  ows of nematic liquid crystals (LCs) has been successfully applied by Rey to study extensional  ow-induced, homogeneous phase transitions both for rod-like and disc-like molecular geometry. Rey analysed the two order parameters (eigenvalues) of the orientation tensor. Recently the authors generalized the  ow-phase diagram (nematic concentration vs.  ow...

Thermomechanical properties of monolayer graphene with thermal fluctuation are studied by both statistical mechanics analysis and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. While the statistical mechanics analysis in the present study is limited by a harmonic approximation, significant anharmonic effects are revealed by MD simulations. The amplitude of out-ofplane thermal fluctuation is calculated fo...

During the operation of proton exchange membrane in fuel cells, cyclic mechanical loads are introduced due to humidity cycles. The resulting fatigue crack is known be main source for its degradation. In this paper, we use a relation between damage evolution cohesive elements and Paris law simulate biaxial growth. effects various loading conditions investigated. predicted growth good agreement w...

The passive mechanical properties of blood vessel mainly stem from the interaction of collagen and elastin fibers, but vessel constriction is attributed to smooth muscle cell (SMC) contraction. Although the passive properties of coronary arteries have been well characterized, the active biaxial stress-strain relationship is not known. Here, we carry out biaxial (inflation and axial extension) m...

A torque measurement system was added to a widely used hip wear simulator, the biaxial rocking motion device. With the rotary transducer, the frictional torque about the drive axis of the biaxial rocking motion mechanism was measured. The principle of measuring the torque about the vertical axis above the prosthetic joint, used earlier in commercial biaxial rocking motion simulators, was shown ...

Cylindrical shells under uniaxial compression and spherical shells under equi-biaxial compression display the most extreme buckling sensitivity to imperfections. In engineering practice, the reduction of load carrying capacity due to imperfections is usually addressed by use of a knockdown factor to lower the critical buckling stress estimated or computed without accounting for imperfections. F...

High-quality m-plane orientated ZnO films have been successfully grown on m-plane sapphire by using radio frequency magnetron sputtering deposition. The introduction of a nanometer-thick, low-temperature-grown ZnO buffer layer effectively eliminates inclusions of other undesirable orientations. The structure characteristics of the ZnO epi-layers were thoroughly studied by synchrotron X-ray scat...

agricultural crops and food materials exert frictional forces on agricultural machinery elements and on storage walls during their harvest, transportation, processing and storage. coefficient of friction is an important parameter to be predetermined in designing equipments and evaluating processes. an assessment of the coefficient of friction for agricultural materials is usually done through s...

Present work is a theoretical study on the stability of the thermotropic biaxial nematic liquid crystal phase in model systems. Its main aim is to present the phase diagrams of spatially uniform liquid mesophases and to identify the molecular parameters that influence the stability of the biaxial nematic. The diagrams are obtained by means of the Local Density Functional Theory in low density a...